The present teachings relate generally to common aperture optical systems and selective imaging methods. More particularly, the present teachings relate to common aperture optical systems that have two or more common imagers and can readily switch between the common imagers, and selective imaging methods.
In many cases, such as but not limited to, large aperture imaging systems, it is advantageous to share the primary imager between multiple sensors to provide a more compact system design or simplified co-registration between the two optical systems. However, there is often a desire or a need to provide multiple inputs to these optical systems, whereby more than one common aperture imager or device is coupled to the optical systems as needed. It is further desirable that this capability be easily implemented and not require the physical removal of one common aperture imager to be replaced by another.